For Sale – Suzuki-Powered Kicksled

IMG_1525(5)

Kicksleds are Nordic, almost quintessentially Finnish ways for grannies and grandpas to get around town in wintertime. You lean on the handlebars and kick the sled along, with your groceries on the seat on front. The leisurely pace of a regular wooden kicksled hasn’t been enough for the builder of this one, so he has combined it with the running gear and rear wheel of a two-stroke 80cc Suzuki moped.

“Quicker than your neighbour’s kicksled!” Sure enough.

IMG_1526

The geometry of the sled matches the ordinary wooden one, but this one has been fabricated out of furniture steel. The handlebars now have brake handles, and you get four gears. The sled has also been modified to be more aerodynamic, and that might prove useful: the seller says he’s taken the contraption to 80km/h!

IMG_1528(9)

Since you would most likely hoon the thing around a frozen lake, the tire is studded with bolts. I’m sure the traction might be more than adequate. You get proper footrests, too.

The machine is for sale for less than 1000 eur, so as long as the lakes are frozen you should get on your feet and bring the sled home.

See the ad here on Findit.fi

[Source: Findit.fi/ Hat tip to Perc!]

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

The maximum upload file size: 64 MB. You can upload: image, audio, video. Links to YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and other services inserted in the comment text will be automatically embedded. Drop files here

19 responses to “For Sale – Suzuki-Powered Kicksled”

  1. B72 Avatar
    B72

    How would you steer it? Drag a foot?

    1. pj134 Avatar
      pj134

      I'm no expert but I think leaning would do the trick.
      <img src="http://www.bonnevillevintagegp.com/img/homepage_sidecar.jpg&quot; width=500>

    2. Perc Avatar
      Perc

      The handlebars gives you leverage to bend the frame and that's enough to steer. At least that's how a traditional human-powered kicksled works. Given that this is a monster capable of 80km/h and up, all bets are off.

      1. TurboBrick Avatar
        TurboBrick

        You use kind of a half bend, half lean style when riding with 3 people and a bucket of "kilju" on board. One person holds the bucket in the seat, one on each leg.

    3. Peter Tanshanomi Avatar
      Peter Tanshanomi

      You don't steer, you aim.

  2. Perc Avatar
    Perc

    Ah yes. I knew Antti would make a Hooniverse story out of this. 😉
    This is actually a bit of nostalgia from my youth because it's powered by the engine from THE moped of the 90's, the Suzuki PV50. Yes, I had one, a 1993. Which was street legal. Mostly.
    Since this … thing … isn't even trying to be street legal it's got the usual modifications. Most importantly, an 80 cc cylinder and likely a Dell'orto carb of unknown diameter. It's probably somewhere in the early twenties. (The stock unit was a 12mm Mikuni, later 14mm.) The exhaust system is, I beleive, a "Gianelli" system. You found these on most PV's with ambitions to go quicker than the law would've liked.
    Good times.

    1. TurboBrick Avatar
      TurboBrick

      I can't believe most our age group survived the 90's. Now that I'm older I can see what a horrible idea it was back then to make it legal for a 15-year old to drive one of those things in traffic with exactly zero hours of instruction about things like road rules. And my home town was full of those equal rights intersections in most unexpected places (traffic on the main street was supposed to yield to the side streets!).
      Then again, I logged in most of my hours on an '89 PV and Helkama Ässä on the back roads when I was even younger and helmet was something you wore only so the cops wouldn't pull you over. I dont remember which it was that I dropped on my leg one summer and burned a big scar on my ankle. Good times!

    2. HSA Avatar
      HSA

      "Which was street legal. Mostly."
      You mean, "Which was street legal when I bought it"?

  3. Rust-MyEnemy Avatar

    Looks like a poster child in waiting for the Darwin awards. Awesome.

    1. Rover 1 Avatar
      Rover 1

      Is it still the Darwin Awards if it doesn't kill yo , but just leaves you unable to reproduce? Studded tyre between legs in standing position!!

  4. Scandinavian Flick Avatar
    Scandinavian Flick

    That looks delightfully suicidal. I like the inclusion of a fender to keep your twig and berries safe from an ice pounding.

    1. Batshitbox Avatar

      I think the more serious threat is the un-threading of the 'spikes'… talk about a 'nut'-shot!

    2. HSA Avatar
      HSA

      Suicidal… moped… wait a second, I might have something for you. Here, a jet propelled moped:
      <img src="http://www.students.tut.fi/~kiiskils/turbo/E2-TAKA.jpg"&gt;
      The Eunuch 1, based on a bicycle, was built in 1996 and the moped-based Eunuch 2 around 1998. Thus the image quality and particularly the video clips are of prehistoric quality, but the web site might still be worth browsing.

  5. Wolfie Avatar
    Wolfie

    Seems some guy went to the Salvage pile and gathered stuff, put it together and I like it.

  6. Frere P. Avatar
    Frere P.

    The headlight I understand, but a taillight?

    1. B72 Avatar
      B72

      In case someone else builds a faster one.

    2. HSA Avatar
      HSA

      You can see where it headed after you fell off.

      1. Manic_King Avatar
        Manic_King

        Builder definitely needs to go to snowmobile junkyard and get one of those safety switches and wristbands which cut the ignition when driver has fallen off. But that of course would be against the mindset behind building this death trap.

  7. Tim Odell Avatar
    Tim Odell

    I can think of worse ways to die.